Several rune stones have been found in the
United States, most notably the Kensington
Runestone in Minnesota and the
Heavener
Stone in Oklahoma. There is
considerable debate over their age and validity. The "Kensington
Runestone" is a slab of gray stone, measuring 36 inches long, 16
inches wide, and 6 inches thick. It contains runic writing along the
face of the stone and along one edge. The stone was found by a
Minnesota farmer named Olaf Ohman in November of 1898 while a digging
up a poplar tree stump on the southern slope of a 50-foot high knoll.
The stone was buried face down about six inches below the surface,
with the tree roots wrapped around it. Mr. Ohman and his sons saw the
runic letters but did not know what they were.

Unfortunately, the stone was not left in
place, so they were unable to demonstrate its obvious age from the
growth pattern of the tree. The stone was sent to the University of
Minnesota and then to Chicago. It was was studied by runic scholars,
who interpreted the inscription to be an account of Norse explorers
in the 14th Century. Many authorities who have since examined the
stone have claimed it a forgery, but others are equally certain of
its authenticity.

It is known King Magnus of Sweden sent that a
party to Greenland in 1355. They never returned. It is very possible
that these men were from that party. The stone bears the date of
1362. The transliteration of the text is generally accepted as:

"Eight
Goths and 22 Norwegians on a journey of exploration from
Vinland very far west. We had camp by 2 rocky islands one day's
journey north from this stone. We were out fishing one day.
After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM
[Ave Maria] save us from evil."

The inscription along the edge of the stone
says:

"Have 10
men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days' journey from
this island. Year 1362."

The stone is now in the Runestone Museum in
Alexandria, Minnesota, near where the stone was found.

Update:
At a 2000 conference in St. Paul, attended by archaeologists from
about 20 states and three Canadian provinces, a Minnesota geologist
and a Wisconsin chemist presented what they say is indisputable
evidence that the runestone inscription is "real" and old, probably
from the 1300s. Scott Wolter, president of American Petrographic
services, is a licensed Minnesota geologist. He was instrumental in
analyzing the stone's surfaces with Barry Hanson, a chemist and
project manager for nonprofit archeology group, Archeology ITM, and
Paul Weiblen, professor emeritus in geophysics at the University of
Minnesota. Weiblen published a 45-page report on the mineralogy of
the stone, and concludes that the carvings are significantly older
than 1898, when it was discovered.

Mr.
Ohman and the Runestone

Possible Viking Routes to
Minnesota from Greenland:
via the Hudson Bay and the Nelson and Red Rivers
or via the St. Lawrence River and the Great
Lakes.

Dr. Richard Nielsen, president of Houston
Texas-based Nielsen Engineering, studies linguistics as a hobby. His
research involving 14th century legal documents known as "Swedish
Diplomas", reveals linguistic evidence linking the writing style and
expressions on the stone to the vernacular found in historical legal
documents of the period between 1355 and 1375. During the 14th
century many of the educated scribes died of the bubonic plague. Less
educated writers introduced vernacular into the legal documents
during that period. Download
his 74-page article in PDF format.

Thomas Reiersgord, author of The
Kensington Rune Stone: Its Place in History, believes that the
"10 men red with blood", were not killed by Indians, but were victims
of the bubonic plague, carried in its incubation period from Europe,
by one or more carriers in the group. In its pneumatic form the
plague spreads and kills rapidly, the victims vomiting blood as well
as covered with bloody pustules.

The "Heavener
Runestone" of Oklahoma is a slab
about 12 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 16 inches thick with runic
letters spelling out the word "Gaomedat". By reversing two runes
which appear to be different from the others, the inscription becomes
"Glomedal", or "Glome's Valley". It could also be rendered "G.
Nomedal". Nomedal is a Norwegian family name. Thanks to the efforts
of Gloria Farley, the area surrounding the stone is now the Heaven
Rune Stone State Park. The stone is now protected inside a building
erected around it. The official theory is that the stone was erected
as a boundary marker between 600 A.D. and 900 A.D.

Old-timers related that there were many more
stones in the area, but most were destroyed by treasure hunters in
the 1930s and 1940s. Neither of the Heavener Runestones Numbers Two
or Three have enough runes to render a translatable message. In 1967,
another stone was found near Ponteau, Oklahoma.

Heavener
#2

The second stone, which measured 30 by 14
inches and 20 inches thick, shows 12-inch, three-pronged symbol on a
stem, the runic "R". Below it on the side surface was a small mark
which later proved to be a "bindrune," or combination of two runes.
This stone is called "Heavener Runestone Number Two.

Inscription on Heavener
#3

On Heavener Three an "X," a "turkey track,"
and an arrow shape: the runes for "G," "R," and "T," respectively.
The letters, 6 to 9 inches tall, appear in a triangular pattern on a
stone 5 1/2 feet long. Neither of the Heavener Runestones Numbers Two
or Three have enough runes to render a translatable
message.

Poteau
Stone

The
Poteau stone, found by schoolboys in
1967, is 15 inches long. There are seven characters in a straight
line, l 1/2 to 2 inches high. The runes showed very plainly because
the bottom of the grooves were in a lighter colored layer of the
stone, while the surface was dark. Tool marks in the grooves showed
that the letters had been made with a punch, like the Heavener
Runestone. Four of the runes are duplicates of those on the Heavener
Runestone, and three seemed to be variants of others on it. From the
site of the Poteau stone, the Heavener Runestone on the side of
Poteau Mountain lies about 10 miles to the southeast. The original
sties of Heavener Runestones Numbers Two and Three fall in a line
between them.

There are several more theories regarding the
Heavener stones. In 1967, Alf Monge, a former US Army cryptographer
asserted that the symbols are a runic puzzle, indicating a date,
equivalent to November 11, 1012, St. Martin's Day, on our calendar.
According to Monge, all of the cryptic runic messages in North
American and those found in Stave Churches in Norway, are deciphered
as dates of church holidays. He feels there is evidence that the
creator of this puzzle and others found in North America was Eirik
Gnupsson, known as Henricus, who was made Bishop of Greenland in
1112. Henricus was believed to have made several trips to Vinland and
farther inland. Monge says Henricus left seven runic puzzles
including the Kensington Rune Stone, the Heavener Rune Stone and the
Spirit Pond Rune Stone. This is discussed in two books by O.G.
Landsverk: Runic Records of the Norsemen in America, Erik J
Friis Publisher, 1974, and Ancient Norse Messages on American
Stones, Norseman Press, 1969., and in Earl Syversen's
Norse
Runic Inscriptions: with their long-forgotten
cryptography, Vine Hill
Press.

Monge's solution to the Poteau inscription is
another date, November 11, 1017 A.D., exactly five years later than
the date he said was on the Heavener Runestone. The seventh symbol on
the Poteau Runestone is not in the standard runic alphabets but was a
runic symbol for the numeral 17.

The early Norse calendar is based upon a
cycle of 19 days, or Golden Numbers. The Younger Futhark was used to
number those days. There are, of course, only 16 staves in the
Younger Futhark, so three new symbols were devised to represent 17,
18, and 19.

Yet another stone was found in
Shawnee,
Oklahoma. Its five runes, all from the 24-rune Elder Futhark, spells
out "MEDOK." Medok is similar to Madoc, the name of a Welsh prince.
Ancient records state that he came to America in the year 1170 A.D.,
then returned to Wales for ten shiploads of colonists which he led up
the Mississippi River. However, the Welsh did not use third century
A.D. Norse runes and the name Medok is not Madoc. Alf Monge studied
the inscription on the Shawnee Runestone and said it was another
Norse cryptopuzzle, giving the date November 24, 1024 A.D.

Shawnee
Runestone

While agreeing that the Heavener stone bears
a cryptic message, Dr. Lee Woodward, a Sallisaw, Oklahoma minister,
believes it is a monument to Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle, a
French explorer, who was murdered in 1687. Woodward asserts that la
Salle was killed in the area of Heavener, not in East Texas as is
commonly believed. He concludes that the stone was carved by Gemme
Hiens, whom he refers to as a "German-English linguistic and artistic
genius who had been a companion of La Salle from 1684-1687... Hiens
did his monument in form of a runic riddle, not wanting all to
readily recognize what he was doing. His riddle called for
identification of a 'Grandly Famous French Man and his dates' (G. NOM
E (t) DAT(es). He then cleverly answered the riddle in a way which be
very clearly seen at the monument (D' La Salle, 21 Novembre 1643-19
Mars 1687). Those are birth and death dates of La Salle." Dr Lee
Woodward's theory is explained in his book, Secret
La Salle Monument and Historical Marker,

Richard Nielsen, an American engineer and
Norse scholar, feels that the runes should be read literally, not as
puzzles. He says that the second and last runes on the Heavener
Runestone, which had been considered an "A" and a "T," were actually
versions of "L," and that the seventh rune on the Poteau inscription
was a double "L" in the form of a bindrune, a combination of two
runes using one vertical stroke for a stem line. Nielsen believes
that all the runes on the Heavener, Poteau, and Shawnee inscriptions
are from the Elder Futhark The Heavener runes transliterated into "G
L O M E D A L." , "Glome's Valley". The Poteau runes read "G L O I A
L L W (ALU)." He says that he found that "Gloi," is a nickname for
"Glome," thus the two stones are related to the same man. The word
"ALU" is a magical formula. This language was used around 600 A.D.
and is the key to the new dating of the Oklahoma Runestones. The
stones were made, according to Nielsen, between 600 and 900.
Nielsen's essay "Early
Scandinavian Incursions Into The Western
States", discusses the Kensington
runestone as well as the Heavener stone.

The Spirit
Pond runestones were found in Maine
in 1971. One bears a rough map of the area, the second has runic
writing on one side. On the third, there are ten lines of runes on
one side and six on the other. The inscription tells of a sudden
storm and fearful men trying to save their ship from "the foamy arms
of Aegir, angry god of the sea". This stone, too, has been called a
hoax. I think that it is reasonable that Vikings, who were known to
have built a settlement in Newfoundland, might very well have
traveled south to Maine. As mentioned above, cryptologist Alf Monge
believes that the stone is genuine, but its tale is not to be taken
literally. He asserts that is a runic puzzle by Henricus, 12th
century Bishop of Greenland.

Landsverk, Ole Godfred: The
Kensington Rune-Stone: A Reappraisal of the Circumstances
under which the Stone was Discovered, Glendale: Church
Press, 1961.

Nilsestuen, Rolf M.:The
Kensington Runestone Vindicated.
University Press of America, 1996, ISBN= 0819197491.
Nilsestuen is not a scholar, but rather an irascible
retiree, who dug into and revealed the scandalous
mishandling of many of the prior investigations. He rants,
but he makes a strong argument.

Redmond, Jeffery R.: Viking
Hoaxes in North America., New York: Carlton Press, 1979.
This author asserts that the Kensington Rune Stone was a
fraud.